Ignited

CHAPTER 1

         I could not escape the worst night of my life. 
         The screams and the sound of shattering glass sent a ripple of fear coursing through my body. I felt the dizzying disorientation and the flip-flopping of my stomach as the car somersaulted end over end. I heard the merciless roar of the river and felt the bite of the cold water that spilled over me. I saw the lifeless bodies of my friends, their souls already departed behind their sightless eyes.          
         It was all so real, so vivid, for a dream. Then again, it wasn’t so much a dream as it was a memory. The outcome never changed. He saved me.
         That was the point at which I usually woke up. Not this time.
         This time, I lay wet and cold on the riverbank, the deafening rush of the water behind me, the river and the car it swallowed out of sight. My nails dug into his skin, my desperation as real now as it had been that night, as I pleaded with him to stay. His eyes were mournful as he peeled my fingers from their grip on his arm. He turned to say one last thing. What, I never knew.
         The blackness engulfed me and I woke up.
         The scream rose in my throat, but didn’t reach my lips. I choked it back with short ragged gasps as I sat up and struggled to breathe. With one satisfying breath, the panic attack was snuffed out before it began.
         My abrupt awakening had not gone unnoticed. Probably because I wasn’t at home in bed, but seated in the middle of my seventh period English Literature class. The teacher stood frozen, chalk in hand, at the front of the room and twenty sets of curious eyes turned to me. It wasn’t the first time I’d dozed off in class, but it was the most embarrassing. Because it was me, no one laughed. They stared and waited for the meltdown they all expected.
         The only sound came from the legs of my chair sliding across the floor. I tossed my book bag over my shoulder and hurried out the door as excited whispers erupted behind me.
         The bathroom was a quick sprint away and, to my relief, empty. Frustrated by the lack of a lock on the entrance, I punched the door. More tears sprung up in my eyes, but the pain in my hand was only an excuse. The true source was a pain that wouldn’t fade anytime soon. I splashed cold water on my face, washing away the tears, but the ache in my chest remained. Blotting my cheeks with a paper towel, I frowned at the stranger staring at me in the mirror.
         Weeks of restless sleep have given her the appearance of two black eyes. Red rimmed the amber in the middle, making them appear drab and weak. Her skin was pale and puffy. Even the tiny freckles that speckled her nose looked washed out. As if all of that weren’t bad enough, it looked as if someone had acted out their psychopathic tendencies on her face with a serrated knife, leaving her forever marred by a red puckered line angled across her forehead.
         In reality, it hadn’t been a knife, but shattered glass, and it hadn’t been a psychopath, but a speeding Cavalier and a patch of black ice on a bridge. It was the reminder of the night I would carry with me forever. I hated it, so I avoided it.
         I checked the time on my cell. Only a few minutes left before the bell, and then one more class to go. Physics. Normally, I looked forward to the challenge. Not today.
         It was the first week back from winter break, and almost four weeks since the accident that claimed two of my friends. It had been a rough week. I was tired and emotional. Really, I just wanted to go home.
         When the bell sounded, I retreated to the last stall to ride out the three minute break. I didn’t want to see anyone. They all looked at me the same, like I was some freak because I had survived what I shouldn’t have. Some said it was luck. Some called it a miracle.
         I knew the truth, and it was neither.
         That didn’t mean I knew why I had been saved. Nor did I know who my savior was. Not really. Granted, that night had been the third time in fourteen years he’d come to my rescue in one way or another. On paper, and by that I mean my journal that is dedicated solely to him, I knew every detail of his appearance—short brown hair, steel blue eyes, tall, buff. That part was easy. The guy met the definition of hot and, well, he never changed. Not one gray hair, one wrinkle, or extra padding around the middle. It wasn’t because of good genes or plastic surgery. It was because of something unusual, something I couldn’t explain.
         There wasn’t much about him I could explain. Hence the journal full of questions I was dying to ask him if I ever had the chance. He never hung around long enough for me to ask anything, except the night he brought me here, to live with the old lady the whole town called Gran, when I was eleven. Unfortunately, I had slept for most of the car ride, and had woken up in a strange bed, in a strange house, with a strange lady hovering over me, and my hero gone.                    
         While I couldn’t deny the weirdness of his unchanging good looks, my obsession with him ran far deeper than physical. I knew nothing of his motives or what he was doing in my life. I didn’t know whether he was my guardian angel or a very clever—or very confused—enemy. It was enough to keep me up most nights, and many professionals would probably say I needed therapy. But then, I would have to break my promise to not tell anyone about him, and I didn’t want to piss off the guy who literally held my life in his hands. Lying on a leather couch, discussing his existence with someone who wouldn’t believe me anyway didn’t sound like the smart thing to do. So I endured the dreams, suffered through the nightmares, and pretended my journal was a skilled therapist. It helped. Most of the time.
         The second bell rang without anyone invading my hideaway, and I emerged from the stall. The peace was brief, interrupted by an unexpected late arrival bursting through the door. I started to scurry into hiding before I recognized the voice calling my name.
         “Kris? You in here?” Callie Sanders has been my best friend since the second day of sixth grade, when I not-so-accidentally smacked the class bitch in the back of the head with a volleyball in gym class. Callie had promptly given me a high five, which had earned us both a trip to the principal’s office. We have been inseparable ever since. Seeing me now, she entered, letting the door shut behind her. “You okay? Hannah said you freaked out in class.”
         I blew out a puff of air. “Is there anything this school doesn’t spread like a wild fire?”
         “It’s high school. Gossip is all we have.” Callie looked me over, scrutinizing me with a frown. “You look like hell.”
         “Thanks.”
         She wrinkled her nose. “When was the last time you washed your hair?”
         “Last night,” I said, pulling the straw-like strands into a hasty ponytail to shield them from her critical eyes. Or was it two nights ago? Hair washing had not been a priority as of late.   
         She made a face like she didn’t believe me. “It’s looking a little on the orange side.”
         That was me, the freak with the burnt orange hair. It used to be pretty—long blonde waves with a touch of strawberry. That was another life, another girl. The girl I was now had more important things than hair to deal with. Like dead friends, classmates who thought I was a witch, and a mystery man whose motives I couldn’t figure out. 
         “You ready to get out of here?” Callie asked.
         “You have no idea.”
         But she did. She was my friend for a reason, even if our bond didn’t make much sense.
         Callie was everything I wasn’t. She was borderline annoyingly bubbly, wore makeup, dated boys in rapid succession, and had a new hair style and color every other week—today was an almost black bob with dark red highlights. She preferred getting a manicure to watching a football game, loved to shop for fun, and excelled in high school social politics. We were very different, but it worked for us. I couldn’t imagine high school without her. Every day, I was grateful for the turn of events that had kept Callie from being in the car that night.
         “I have to grab my math book,” she said, stopping at her locker. “Big quiz tomorrow.”
         “That you won’t study for,” I added drily.
         She shrugged, and slipped the book into her bag anyway. Our lack of interest in school was one thing we did share. Before the accident, school nights had been nuisances that stood in the way of socializing. That was until we had mastered the art of sneaking out. Well, Callie hadn’t, which was why she had been grounded the night of the accident.
         “So what happened in class?” Callie asked once we started down the hall. Aside from us, it was empty.
         “The usual nightmare.” Callie knew about my dreams, everything except the guy that frequented them.
         “Want to talk about it?”
         “Not really.”
         Callie knew the drill. I talked when I wanted to, which wasn’t often. And when I did, I never, ever told her everything. Sure, I felt bad about keeping things from my best friend. I also didn’t want her to think I was crazier than she probably already thought I was. If I didn’t understand my mystery guy, how could I explain his existence to her without sounding like a raving lunatic? The short answer: I couldn’t. So, I kept him a secret. It was easier than defending my sanity.
         We crept quietly past the office, the empty cafeteria, and the gym, where the squeaking of shoes on the polished basketball court and cries of war signaled the start of a wild game of dodge ball. Through trial and error, we’d learned that the door at the back of the gym was the best route of escape. The student parking lot was a short dash from there.
         The sun was warm on my face, the air chilly. The weather here was often confusing. In western North Carolina, we were far enough south to get mild winters, but elevated high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the town of Boone saw more harsh weather than mild.
         It was a good ski town...for skiers, which I wasn’t.
         Callie and I made a beeline for her white Honda Civic, parked in the rear of the lot. About halfway there, she turned to me excitedly.
         “Have you seen the new guy yet?” She wiggled her eyebrows as if to say, wow.
         “Cute, is he?” I asked with little interest. Callie was boy crazy. I wasn’t.
         “Not cute. So hot he doesn’t belong at this school,” Callie amended, and then went into listing all the reasons why he was so hot, but I wasn’t paying much attention.
         I recalled my own arrival six years ago. Having played the foster home shuffle as a child, I knew all too well what it was like to be the new kid. That had changed when I came to live in Boone. My life has been different since the move. Better, thanks to Gran, and because of him, the guy who frequented my dreams, the one I couldn’t get out of my head...
         The same one I saw now, in the flesh, with my own two non-dreaming eyes.
         I stopped and blinked at what I thought at first to be a mirage. He was standing on the corner a block away, wearing shades so I couldn’t see his eyes, but from everything else about him—his hair, size, shape, build, and even the way he wasn’t moving—I knew it was him. I could feel his eyes on me, watching me.
         I glanced around for the source of danger. Nothing was out of place. Only him. 
         “Hey...” Callie was talking to me. “Are you listening to me?”
         It occurred to me that maybe he hadn’t been expecting me. I was supposed to be in school, in class. Not in the parking lot. Maybe my sudden appearance had taken him by surprise? With a determination to cash in on this unexpected encounter, I bolted across the parking lot at a full on run, heading straight for him. Seeing my intentions, he turned and disappeared around the corner. Callie called my name, but I tuned her out and pumped my arms harder. I would not let him get away. Not without some answers.
         Reaching the street, I slowed long enough for a car to pass, and then darted across. By the time I reached the corner, he was long gone. I ran into the middle of the street he had fled down and swept my eyes from side to side, looking for movement.
         Cars lined the street on both sides, bumper to bumper, the whole way to the next intersection. Glancing over my shoulder to be sure I wasn’t about to be hit by a car, I walked down the road, my feet straddling the single yellow line in the middle.
         In the distance, a car door shut and an engine roared to life. A second after I spotted it, a sporty black Jeep pulled away from the curb, sped to the intersection, and took a fast right without stopping. I ran after it but, by the time I got to the intersection, it was nowhere in sight.
         I stood in the middle of the road, staring in the direction he had gone, and held a hand to my side as I fought to catch my breath. I hadn’t seen the driver, but I hadn’t needed to. I knew it was him.
         Again, he had gotten away. But I had seen his vehicle. I knew what he drove. It was the most I had gotten in fourteen years.

CHAPTER 2

         I had a long therapy session with my journal that evening. Gran checked on me once, brought me some food. She must have guessed that I had a rough day and left me alone. She was always good about that.
         I fell asleep late and woke up late, with the journal sprawled across my chest and sunlight peeking through the curtains. I glanced at the clock and groaned. Flinging the journal across the room, I crawled out of bed, dressed in the first thing I found, ran a brush through my hair and ultimately decided to pull it up in a ponytail.          
         I was going to be so late. 
         I grabbed my cell from the kitchen counter and checked it as I dashed out the door. There were two missed calls from Callie half an hour ago. She would have gone to school without me by now. That left me walking, which was only going to make me even later.
         It was a fifteen minute brisk walk to the school. Second period classes were half way over by the time I got there. Racing through the front door, I didn’t see the boy until I crashed into him, and sent the contents in both of our arms scattering across the lobby.
         I groaned again. This day was not off to a promising start.
         I glanced at the victim of my clumsiness, a meek apology ready, and stopped with my mouth gaped open, the words stuck to my tongue.
         Whoever he was, he was cute—like just stepped out of a magazine cute. His dirty blonde hair was purposefully and stylishly unruly. The jade hue of his eyes was so bold there was no way they could be real. A ring hooked his left eyebrow and I glimpsed part of a tattoo on the back of his neck, peeking above the collar of his shirt. His clothes—faded and torn jeans and an Abercrombie t-shirt—fit as if they were made for him.
         He could be the poster boy for chastity belts. His easy smile promised trouble, like he knew he was every father’s worse nightmare. The flash of a tongue ring drew my eyes to his mouth, and he beat me to an apology, since I was temporarily stunned.
         “I’m sorry.” He stooped to pick up the mess at our feet. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
         He had an accent I couldn’t place. And, my God, those eyes...
         Where did this guy come from? He had to be the new kid. Callie was right. He was hot.
         “I’m pretty sure I ran into you.” I picked up a few books that weren’t mine and handed them to him. “I’m running a little late.”
         “That makes two of us.” He shrugged like he didn’t care, and I was sure he really didn’t. He handed me the strewn contents of my book bag and a blush rose on my cheeks, though I didn’t know why. Things could have been worse. It could have been a gym day and my sports bra had hit the floor at his feet. I should be grateful that it was only a pack of cheese-flavored crackers he held out to me. “Healthy lunch?”
         “Better than the food the school tries to force on us,” I returned with a shrug.
         He nodded like I had said something ingenious. “It really is horrible. My last school wasn’t this bad.”
         Having collected our belongings, we both stood and started toward the office to check in. One of those annoying high school rules meant to keep us in line, and the adults in charge. Or so they thought.
         “Where was your last school?” I asked, wondering about that accent I had detected.
         Like everyone else, he was several inches taller than me and had to look down when he answered. “Colorado. Outside Aspen.” He would be a skier. No, snowboarder. He had that pot-smoking girl-on-each-arm snowboarder vibe.
         “What brought you to middle of nowhere Boone?”
         His gaze drifted ever so slightly before he looked at me. “I can’t pop that mystery bubble so soon, now can I?”
         Death or divorce, I thought. Or...he almost had the edge of a foster kid, something that might make others uncomfortable, but I found familiar, like I recognized a kindred spirit. And, while I wasn’t the best interpreter of this sort of thing, I would swear he was flirting with me.
         “Maybe I’ll solve the mystery someday,” I said. Correction: I was terrible at this sort of thing.
         He returned a definitely flirtatious, and downright sexy, grin. “Yeah, maybe.”
         He was nice enough, but a much better flirt than me, and I was relieved when we reached the office. The secretary looked up from her computer in that way all adults looked at teenagers when it was assumed they were up to no good. 
         “Excuses?” she asked without any preamble.
         We both shook our heads and she sighed, looking annoyed. Pulling out the tardy slips, she asked for our names. That was how I learned that his was Alec Sierra. 
          She didn’t bother to ask my name. She knew it. I was a frequent flyer through the office and had acquired a not-quite-a-trouble-maker-yet reputation. More like a thorn in their ass. After the accident, I had skyrocketed to infamy. Everyone knew who I was. Kristina Young. The smartass new chick— in a town where everyone has known each other since diapers—who has no family, lives with the strange but super sweet old lady the whole town adores, and walked away from the worst disaster to hit this town in thirty years.
         Yep, the secretary definitely knew who I was. Even the new kid noticed.
         After we were given the unexcused tardy lecture and ordered straight to our second period classes, we exited the office together. I barely took two steps before he swiped my excuse.
         “Kristina Young,” he read out loud. He turned to me, his hand extended. “I’m Alec, but I guess you already know that. It’s nice to officially meet you, Kristina.”
         I grimaced at the use of my full name, but took his hand. “Nice to meet you too, Alec,” I said. “And please, call me Kris.”
         “Kris?” He cast me a sideways glance. “Don’t like your full name?”
         “Despise it,” I said with exaggerated emphasis. 
         We reached his locker first and I stopped to wait for him as we talked about everything, and yet nothing. Next thing I knew, we were standing next to my locker, the door open, my books unmoved, still chatting away. I heard of his confusion about foods popular in this part of the country, some language barriers he was adjusting to, what teachers he had, and what neighborhood he had moved to—not far from mine actually. I was in the process of dishing on the habits of certain teachers when the bell rang. 
         I jumped and glanced at him with widened eyes. He shrugged at me as students brushed past us, hurrying to their third period classes. 
         “I’m sure we didn’t miss anything,” he said. “I had more fun doing this anyway.”
         I retrieved the books I would need and shot him a small smile. “Me too.”
         He noted the incredulity in my voice, and feigned a broken heart. “Surprised by that?” 
         “I just—” I stammered. “I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just been a rough week for me.”
         I saw the flicker of recognition on his face, and knew that he had heard about the accident. It was the curse of going to a small town school. Everyone knew everything. For a moment, I wondered what the others had told him. Then, I decided it didn’t matter.
         With a secretive smile, he said, “Well, that’s about to change.”
         “What?”
         He leaned forward like he had a secret to share with me and dropped his voice, “People can’t help but have fun around me.”
         That I could believe.
         “And you’re on my radar now, so I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot more of me,” he added as he backed up, hands in his pockets. With a parting grin, he turned and walked away. 
         A cluster of passing junior girls slowed and stared. I kept my eyes on his back as he navigated the hallway, ignoring the stares with perfected indifference. Half way down the hall, he glanced over his shoulder and shot me a killer grin. For the first time in weeks, the smile I returned wasn’t a forced one. 

*  *  *

         Callie cornered me at lunch. “Okay. Spill it.” She set her tray down and plopped into the seat next to me. She leaned her elbows onto the table eagerly, waiting for juicy details. She wasn’t going to get them. She should know by now that, when it came to boys, I wasn’t as exciting as she expected me to be.   
         “Apparently you already know,” I said coyly, biting into a cracker.
         “I had to hear it from Kathy.” Her voice dripped of disapproval. Kathy was the self-appointed school gossip. Of course she would be all over Alec and me talking in the hallway. She also had a way of exaggerating the facts.
         “Heard what exactly?” I asked.
         “You and the new kid were skipping together and getting chummy this morning. I can’t believe you stood me up and didn’t at least tell me it was for a boy, let alone a hot one.”
         Our friends, Josh and Danny, sat down across from us. Josh had a thing for Callie, though neither of them knew it yet. In eighth grade, I endured seven minutes in heaven with Danny. Really, only thirty seconds. We spent the other six and a half minutes comparing playlists. That was the closest I have ever come to having a boyfriend.          
         “I heard you two are going out tomorrow night,” Josh volunteered.
         “I heard the quarry tonight,” Danny countered.
         “The quarry?” I squeaked. Where the entire school goes to park and make out? Me?
         My three friends laughed. They knew me and knew how ridiculous the rumors were. The rest of the school unfortunately...
         I turned to Callie in desperation. “We just talked.” Not only was it embarrassing, but I felt a little guilty about it. She had been the one admiring him from afar for days. “It was nothing. He probably doesn’t even remember my name.”
         “Uh-huh,” Callie said with a goofy look on her face. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Then why is he on his way over here right now?”
         “What?”
         I turned in a panic as Alec strolled up behind me, holding out a purple and yellow folder with a lily on the front that I recognized as mine. He looked like he thought he should be embarrassed to have it in his possession, but didn’t care. Not really. He was the type of guy that could take a small hit to his ego. It wasn’t going to go anywhere.
         “I found this mixed in with my math homework. Imagine how humiliated I was pulling it out in front of the whole class.” The smile in his eyes actually made the jade sparkle, and I had a hard time looking directly at them. 
         “Oh, sorry about that.” I took the folder from him with a grimace. “That can’t be easy to overcome. That’s probably going to be how everyone will remember you now.”
         He nodded. “Yeah, I’m ruined for the rest of my high school career. The whole four months.” He stared at me a beat, his hands stuffed in his pockets. “You owe me.”
         How did he make that sound so...hot? I smiled awkwardly as my cheeks warmed. A quick glance confirmed that at least half of the ever-observant eyes in the cafeteria were watching us. Alec noticed at the same time I did, and he took a step back, raising his hand as if to wave goodbye.
         And Callie kicked my shin. Hard.
         The words tumbled out of my mouth before I had time to second guess myself. “Hey, Alec, do you want to sit here? With us?” I shot a frantic look at Callie, who was grinning ear to ear. “Or do you already have a table?”
         He drew in a breath, and squinted his eyes thoughtfully as he surveyed the room. “I’ve experimented a bit. I’m definitely not welcome at the jock table. Or the smart kids table. The outcast table had some promise…”
         Our table had been uncomfortably empty all week, with only the four of us. I knew Callie was happy for Alec to join us. Josh looked up from his lunch with an indifferent shrug. Danny was on his phone, and not paying attention.
         “You can join the nomad table,” I suggested with a nod towards the chair next to mine.
         He glanced at Callie and Josh, and must have seen something reassuring because he sat down and threw me a look that made my head spin. “This might be my favorite one,” he said.
         I pretended not to notice the way I blushed under his gaze. “Good. Glad to have you.”
         Josh grunted something, and I wasn’t sure if he was agreeing or disagreeing with me. Callie, I swear, squealed in delight. She was certainly happy to have adopted Alec into our lunch circle. That close knit group was practically family. Well, it used to be. Maybe it could be again. Alec was nice, funny, and easy on the eyes. With him here now, lunch might not be as miserable as it had been.
         He couldn’t have come along at a better time.

CHAPTER 3

         I was becoming me again—washing my hair regularly, wearing makeup, and all that. Thanks to Alec. He has been in my life for only three weeks now, but already, the boy had a way of getting through to me like no one else could. Not even Callie. Who would have thought? The super-hot-new-boy and me? The idea was as preposterous to me as it was to everyone else. I wasn’t the kind of girl guys like Alec typically went for. Sure, boys thought I was cute in an I-don’t-care kind of way, not in an I-get-regular-mani-pedis-and-got-fake-boobs-for-Christmas kind of way, like Brigit and Heather and their bobble-head cheerleader groupies. 
         And Brigit got turned down hard by Alec, or so I had heard. From the daggers she was shooting in my vicinity, I assumed the rumor was true.
         I faced another direction and took a swig of beer.          
         It was also because of Alec that I found myself here, at a beach party. By beach, I mean a narrow strip of sand along one edge of Big Pine Lake just outside of Boone and by party, I mean a bonfire, a throng of teenagers, and alcohol. It wasn’t a big lake, but it was a large crowd.
         Most of them were familiar to me in one way or another, either from seeing them every day in the halls at school or having partied with them in the past. Most looked surprised to see me. Some smiled, like they were glad I was back. Others shot me the usual awkward stare, but I was getting better at not caring about those.
         “There’s Alec.” Callie nudged my shoulder, and I followed her gaze to the water’s edge, where he sat in the sand, forearms rested on his knees, beer bottle dangling from one hand, a cigarette in the other. Though not the most attractive habit, he more than made up for it with personality and raw good looks. In a green button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, tattered jeans, his favorite Sketchers, and a grin that might even manage to drop a nun’s panties, he was easily the most alluring guy here. Hovering around him and a few boys I didn’t recognize—friends of his, I assumed from the way they were carrying on—was a girl that seemed to agree. She wasn’t even subtle as she raked her eyes all over him.
         He was oblivious. Well, knowing Alec, he wasn’t oblivious, but he also wasn’t returning the interest. I smiled into my beer bottle.
         The whole school thought we were an item. I had to admit, there were times I had to wonder myself. Like when he sat beside me every day at lunch and had me laughing the entire thirty minutes, the times I passed him in the hall between classes and he met my gaze with a flirty wink, and the other times he’d be waiting for me, leaning against my locker like some Calvin Klein model. People stared. They whispered and speculated. I was used to being the center attraction for the gossip circus, and Alec, well, he didn’t really seem to care. 
         Then there was the way he looked at me sometimes. That way that really got my heart racing and my palms sweating. He didn’t have to say anything, just look. Or touch. Like a few nights ago, when he brushed aside the hair covering the scar on my forehead and nearly put me into heart failure. “You don’t have to hide it. Not from me,” he had said, and I thought he might kiss me then. But he didn’t, and ever since I’ve been wondering what it would be like to kiss Alec, and wishing for it to happen.
         So, even if everyone else thought we were together, and there were times I thought we were heading down that path, the truth was I didn’t know what we were or where we stood. I mean, he was a friend, albeit a really cute, ornery one that I wanted to kiss.
         But when he did things like drag me off to the mall to do “girly stuff” when Callie had the flu, drive me to Josh’s to watch the NFL playoffs on the big screen, convince me to skip school to teach me how to snowboard, and graciously accept the detention we both received the following day with a suave, “It was worth every minute”, I really wanted to kiss him.
         That was why my stomach twisted into a knot when he spotted me now and fixed me with a hellish grin as he parted the sea of bodies on his way over to me.
         “I was wondering when you’d get here,” he said when he drew closer.
         “We had to go to the mall first,” Callie volunteered before I could find my voice. “Shopping, hair maintenance, you know, girl stuff.”
         Alec grinned, and I knew he was recalling our adventure last week. The funnest afternoon spent in a mall. Ever. “As a matter of fact, I do know.”
         “So, who are those guys you were hanging out with over there?” Callie tried to look around Alec. “Any cute ones?”
         Alec shifted to block her view. “No.” He turned Callie and I around, stepped between us, and placed an arm around each of our shoulders as he led us away. “Those guys are no good for you. Besides, if I brought you two over there, those girls would probably try to rip your hair out.”
         He was being silly as always, but I knew I hadn’t missed the alarm on his face when Callie had shown interest in his buddies. He didn’t want us to meet them, and there was more to it than girl fights and hair pulling. I didn’t have a guess as to what it could be and, knowing Alec, I doubted it was anything serious, so I set that mystery aside for dissection later.
         Brigit was staring at us like she was casting a spell of immediate and painful death on me, and that was a tad more significant at the moment. I wondered what exactly Alec had turned down to deserve that much hatred from her. Brigit was well-known, and it wasn’t because of her outstanding virtue or stellar grades.
         Callie must have seen her too, and leave it to Callie to leave no stone unturned. “So, Alec, what exactly happened with Big Tits Brig?”
         “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He feigned innocence, but the grin on his face gave him away.
         “Was it a lap dance? I heard she’s known for those,” Callie said.
         “Don’t forget quickies in the boys’ locker room,” I added. That had been last year’s scandal.
         Alec looked down at me with huge eyes. “Definitely no quickies.” He glanced at Callie reluctantly. “Perhaps an offering in the vicinity of a lap dance.”
         Callie and I busted out laughing. Wiping tears from her eyes, Callie said, “Man I would have loved to have seen the look on her face. You just shot her down?”
         “I’m not interested in her.” There was something about the tone of his voice that made me turn my head toward him. He gave my shoulder a squeeze and shot me a look that all but said, It’s you I’m interested in. 
         I nearly choked on my next breath. Callie gave no indication that she noticed the exchange between Alec and me, but she picked that moment to excuse herself. Calling to Josh, who she had conveniently picked out in the crowd, she took off, leaving us alone.
         We stared at each other in silence for a moment before Alec took my hand, slipping his fingers between mine. “Come with me,” he said.
         Either I was rendered brain dead or his smile was impossible to resist, or maybe both, because I couldn’t utter a word as he pulled me after him, leading the way through the mass of bodies. The crowd thinned as we walked away from the bonfire, until it was just us, walking hand in hand down the beach. We passed a few couples who had ventured off for seclusion and I tried not to think about what they were doing out there, hidden in the shadows. Or what Alec was up to.
         “Where are we going?” I finally asked him.
         “Getting away.” He pulled me closer. “I don’t really want to be around a lot of people.”
         “Oh, okay.” That was it, the best I could come up with. I was heading off, alone, with Alec. Alone. I hoped I was ready for this.
         We wandered up on a battered playground at the edge of the beach, surrounded by woods and separating the lake from the park’s campground. This time of the year, there would be no campers, which left the rusty slide, death-trap swings, splintered picnic table, and half basketball court all to us. A lone street light atop the pole holding the backboard supplied a dim light. The hoots and hollers of fun on the beach barely reached my ears.
         We were so...so alone.
         Alec picked up a stray basketball and palmed it. Holding it out to me, he asked, “You ever play?”
         “Of course.” I took the ball and dribbled around him. What he didn’t know is that the orphanage had an old court, and I’ve been playing since I was five. My basketball career had sputtered out in junior high, when everyone else shot past me, and I was suddenly shorter than, well, everyone. I still had a mean shot and a wicked cross over though.
         “Ever play HORSE?” he asked.
         “Who’s never played that game?”
         “Let’s play. We can make it interesting if you’d like.” There was a challenge in his voice.
         “What are the stakes?”
         He eyed me doubtfully. “I assume playing for clothes is out of the question.” He hesitated to read my reaction—which was utter shock and terror—and chuckled. “Thought so. I’ll think of something I want.”
         “And if I win?”
         He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that.” As if to prove his point, he slapped the ball out of my hands, shot and sunk a basket. “I’m pretty good.”
         I ambled over to the bouncing ball, nodding my head appreciatively. “Not bad.” I dribbled as I worked my way farther from the basket, and took a shot from behind the three point line. It went in with a gentle whoosh and I looked at Alec triumphantly. “So am I.”
         Half an hour later, I sunk the final shot to clinch my win over Alec—HORSE to HORS.
         “I wish I could say that I let you win, but I didn’t.” He pretended to be more wounded than I knew he was. “You know, we never did agree to the terms. So what do you want?”
         Damn, I wish we had agreed to the terms first. The occasion called for a flirty response, something I was so not qualified to provide. Then, a genius idea came to mind. Or, well, I hoped it was as ingenious as I thought. And I hoped I could manage to pull it off smoothly. My pulse thundered as I watched Alec dribble to a corner of the court to take a practice shot. Without his eyes on me, I felt brave. Well, braver.
         “We could go ahead with the playing for clothes idea you had earlier.”
         The ball sailed from his fingertips and his eyes slanted to mine, shining a startling green in the dim light as a small grin spread on his face. The ball dropped through the hoop and bounced, forgotten, on the blacktop.
         He moved toward me gracefully, certain of his actions, and my heart nearly stopped beating from the way he was looking at me. “Looking forward to it,” he said with a wolfish grin.
         I must be missing something. “You lost,” I said. “Which means it’ll be you losing an article of clothing. Not me.”
         “That’s not how you play strip-HORSE. I sunk four shots and that’s...” His eyes trailed over various parts of my body as he calculated. “Enough articles of clothing to make me happy. And you, having sunk five shots...” He looked down at himself to count the number of items he was wearing, “leaves me naked, apparently.”
         I gulped. That was so not what I meant. Here I thought I was being cute and flirty, suggesting he remove a shirt or something. Nope, here I was in way over my head. 
         “You don’t do this a lot, do you?” he asked.
         Play strip-HORSE, or strip-anything for that matter? Definitely not. Traipsing around an abandoned playground in my skivvies with a naked boy? Haven’t done that either. Feeling like a deer in headlights, I retreated several steps. “Do what?”
         Alec advanced, keeping up with me. “You don’t go out with a bunch of guys.” He sounded torn between laughing at my obvious nervousness and taking pity on me.
         Not trusting my voice, I shook my head. My foot scraped across a rock, and I knew I had backed off the basketball court.
         Alec still followed. “You don’t pick up on hints very well,” he continued. “Bluntness might work better for you. Fortunately, I’m good at being blunt.”
         I bumped into the picnic table. With nowhere else to go, I took a stance there as he drew closer, and tried to remember how to breathe. 
         “See the thing is, Kris, I kind of like you.” He stood in front of me, splayed his hands on the table, one on each side of me, and leaned close. Really close. He smelled of cigarettes, beer, expensive cologne, and bananas for some mysterious reason. It was an intoxicating blend that was so perfectly Alec.
         Somehow, through the sensory overload, I found my wit. “Blunt nudists aren’t really my type.”
         “What about sexy blunt nudists?” I pretended to consider the revision and he chuckled, “You’re not at all what I expected.”
         What was that supposed to mean? “What did you expect?”
         He looked at me like my innocence was adorable. “For starters, not to want to do this so badly...” The words reached my ears as a whisper as he dropped his head to mine. He paused, a breath away, as if to make sure it was okay to proceed. I tipped my chin up, and he closed the distance, finally pressing his lips to mine. 
         He was much more skilled than I was. Dully, the thought occurred to me that he had probably kissed a lot of girls, but that didn’t matter because I was the one he was kissing now. He kissed me slow and sweet, and didn’t push me faster than I was ready for. I relaxed into him, fully enjoying the moment, and, when he pulled back, a smile was left on my lips. 
         I opened my eyes to see him looking down at me in wonder.
         “Wait a minute…” He placed his hands on my waist and pressed me against the table gruffly, startling me, but in a good way. “Let me see something.”
         Our second kiss was a bit more heated than our first. I let him claim and explore me as he wanted and, when the metal from his tongue ring clanged against my teeth, I nearly combusted. My back arched beneath his weight, his hips ground into mine, and his fingers dug into my skin as he kissed me fiercely at first, then slowed, as if remembering it was me, the all-too-inexperienced Kris, he was manhandling. 
         We were both winded when he pulled back and our eyes locked. He looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time, or was seeing something he hadn’t anticipated. Maybe I was actually a decent kisser, and he was as amazed as I was? Whatever it was, Alec was pleasantly surprised.
         He took my hands in his, and pulled me from the semi-reclined position he had pushed me into. “Nothing at all like I expected.”
         Why did he keep saying that? I shifted to see his face better. He was staring over my shoulder, beyond me and the playground, but I didn’t think he was really seeing anything. His eyes were dark and full of a turmoil I didn’t understand. In that moment, I glimpsed a part of him that ran much deeper than his playful, flirty exterior, and I knew that Alec had secrets.
         “You alright in there?” I asked him.
         His eyes shifted to mine and he grinned. “You ever do something you didn’t want to do?”
         My throat constricted. “Like...kiss me?” Was he regretting it already? It had only been thirty seconds ago.
         “No, I wanted to do that.” He shook his head like he thought I was crazy for thinking that. “Are you kidding me? No, I’m definitely not talking about that.”
         “Taking your clothes off?” I teased. “Because I won’t make you.”
         His eyes twinkled when they leveled on mine. “Not talking about that either.”
         I didn’t press. He’d share what he wanted, when he wanted, and with whom he wanted. I knew how it was. Only one person knew my secret, and he was the secret. If Alec wanted to tell me his, he would.
         “Let’s get out of here,” he finally said.
         “And go where exactly?”
         Alec lifted his eyebrow and shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “There are a few places I would like to go...” The look he gave me fed the fire burning inside of me that his kiss had started. “But what I’m going to do is drive you home,” he continued slowly, like it took a tremendous effort to say the words, and smiled shyly. “That’s how much I like you.”
         “You like me so much you’re going to take me home?” Part of me was curious to know what else he’d had in mind. A bigger part of me knew I wasn’t prepared to find out.
         “Hey, this is huge for me. Don’t make me question myself.” He slipped an arm around my shoulders, and led me back in the direction of the party.
         It was still going on strong when we returned. I managed to find Callie, seated suspiciously close to Josh, and I wondered if they had finally realized what everyone else has known for months. I wanted to ask, but stuck to informing her of Alec’s intentions to drive me home, and promised to call her in the morning with more details. She grinned at me, and I knew we were going to have a nice long chat tomorrow, full of juicy stuff, and, this time, I would have something to add.
         “Ready?” Alec asked when I found him waiting at the mouth of the trail that led to the parking lot. It was a narrow poorly lit path, bordered by a tall rock wall on one side, a flimsy wooden fence on the other. It wouldn’t do much to prevent someone from stumbling off the side of the cliff that got freakishly high as the path ascended to the parking lot. Being as afraid of heights as I was, I secretly hated this trail. 
         I jutted a thumb over my shoulder. “Didn’t you come with friends?”
         “No, I met them here. I drove myself.”
         “Ah, I get to ride in style tonight.”
         Alec had a silver Mustang with black accents, a black leather interior, and a big engine. It was much nicer than Callie’s Civic or the junker Gran let me borrow from time to time. I loved it, loved riding in it, and wanted one just like it, though I knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Or never. I had given up trying to figure out how Alec managed to afford it. Won the lottery? Rich family? Drug dealer? Hit man? I was afraid to ask.
         “You want to ride in style with me tomorrow night, too? Maybe go to dinner?”
         My foot scraped against a rock protruding out of the ground. I hadn’t seen it, with the trail not being lit, and stumbled. Or was it Alec’s question that had rendered my feet useless? I slanted my eyes to him, but I could only see the shadow of his outline beside me. Even if I couldn’t see his face, I had a crystal clear mental image of him trying not to laugh at me.
         “I don’t know if I should take your silence as a yes or a no,” he said.
         “Not a no.” I didn’t trust my voice to manage more than a whisper, and was surprised he heard me.
         I swear I heard him grin. “It’s a date, then.” He slipped an arm around my shoulders and hugged me to his side as we continued up the path.
         So...my first real date, aside from ridiculous group dates to dances with a mix of your boy and girl friends in someone’s mom’s minivan. This would be a real date, alone, with Alec. Hell, he’d already kissed me. I didn’t know what I was so nervous about, but I was.
         So much so that I didn’t notice the figure standing in the shadows at the end of the trail until Alec froze in his tracks beside me. Blocking our path to the parking lot was the large ominous shape of a man. The dim lighting prevented me from seeing him clearly, but I would recognize him anywhere, just like I knew, without seeing them, that his eyes were blue.

CHAPTER 4

         “Shit,” Alec muttered under his breath as his arm dropped from around my shoulders.
         It was him—my mystery guy, my secret, my whatever-he-was. He stepped forward, into the eerie glow cast by the parking lot’s lone street light, and I saw his face. In faded jeans, a grey long sleeved thermal shirt, and a tattered blue baseball cap, he didn’t appear threatening. Yet, he had Alec on edge...
         And me confused. Aside from his unexpected presence at the school a few weeks ago, that I still think he hadn’t meant for me to know about, he only showed up when I was in some sort of trouble. Surely, he didn’t think I was in danger now. 
         His eyes moved from me to Alec, shifted from curious to menacing. From the way he stared at Alec, and the way Alec glared in return, it almost seemed as if they knew each other. From the tension radiating off both of them, it was clear they were not friends.
         “Hey, Kris,” Alec said without looking at me. “Why don’t you go wait in the car?” 
         He held out his car keys to me, but I didn’t take them, hesitant to leave the two of them alone on a dark empty trail. It didn’t seem like a good idea with the way they were sizing each other up. Anyone with half a brain could smell the fight brewing.
         “She’s not going anywhere. I know your buddies are lurking around here somewhere.”
         “There’s no one else,” Alec returned.
         The guy snorted and, in a flash, lunged at Alec and pinned him against the rock wall as I watched with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. “What do you want with her?” he growled, and shoved Alec’s head against the hard earth wall.
         It looked like it hurt, a lot, but Alec barely seemed fazed. If anything, he looked annoyed. “So…you’re the one?”
         The one? It wasn’t possible. Alec couldn’t know my secret. Yet, he knew something...
         “I’m surprised you kept such a distance until now.” Alec’s gaze fell on me and, in that second, he didn’t look like the Alec I knew. He looked dark, dangerous even.
         My eyes flicked between the two. Both of them, both of whom I thought I knew, in different ways, at different times, were strangers to me.
         “You let me get so close...” Alec continued his icy taunt.
         “Long enough for me to realize you’re up to something.” The other guy slipped a hand under his shirt and produced a knife, which he pressed to Alec’s neck. Alec pushed against the wall, in an attempt to put distance between him and the blade, but he had nowhere to go.
         It took me a stunned moment to register the appearance of the knife, and now that I saw it, I realized it didn’t look like any ordinary knife. Its sharply curved blade caught the faintest light, and seemed to sparkle with an unnatural radiance. It was actually a pretty knife. Aesthetics aside, it was deadly, and currently pressed to Alec’s neck.
         I stepped forward in Alec’s defense. Both sets of eyes turned to me, both looking as if they had forgotten I was there.
         The one with the knife looked irritated. “Stay out of this,” he said.
         “Like hell I will.”
         Before I could take another step, I was shoved to the side, and fell to the ground several feet away. Sounds of a struggle reached my ears as I got to my feet. Apparently, after my mystery guy had pushed me out of the way, Alec had tackled him. The two toppled over in a deadly wrestle for control—fists flying and connecting. The occasional flash of the blade caught the light.
         Someone was going to get killed.          
         I looked around helplessly. It was just the three of us, alone on the trail, and they and the knife were blocking my way to the beach, to others who could help. I turned for the parking lot. For what, I wasn’t sure. It was one of those I-would-know-when-I-saw-it kind of things, but when I got there, I knew I wouldn’t find anything helpful.
         No one was there to help. It was just me. Or was it?
         A streaking dark shadow moved in my periphery, near the back of the lot. I zoned in on it and thought I glimpsed someone slipping between two cars, before moving behind the cover of a large black truck. I focused on the area, straining my eyes as I looked for more movement, while trying to convince myself I had imagined it. A second shadow moved nearby, closer, and I backed up into the cover of the dark trail.
         Whoever was there wasn’t someone that was going to help. My eyes scanned the parking lot suspiciously. What had my mystery-guy said about Alec having buddies nearby? Alec had denied it, but there was definitely something menacing going on in the parking lot.
         It was too quiet. Only the grunts of fighting behind me reached my ears. I didn’t look back, fearful of what I might see. Besides, I was more alarmed by the formation of additional furtively moving shadows around us. Real or not, they were freaking me out.